a blog by Maureen Cohen
exoplanet scientist @ Uni of Edinburgh
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How do we get more women on company boards?
Despite progress in recent years, women remain underrepresented on company boards. This is a problem: research shows that companies with women in top positions benefit in numerous ways, including through networking and family-friendly policies. Dr Helen Kowalewska of the University of Oxford is investigating differences in countries’ social policies to understand how the UK could improve gender diversity at… Read more
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What if we could do psychology experiments in virtual reality?
Virtual reality is opening new doors for research in psychology. Based at the University of Kent in the UK, Professor Markus Bindemann and his team build photorealistic, 3D avatars in virtual reality to study face perception and person perception. Read the article at Futurum Careers!
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Edinburgh Women in Space 2021 conference talk: New frontiers in exoplanet science
I was invited to give a 10-minute PhD lightning talk at the Edinburgh Women in Space Conference from 26-28 March 2021. Here’s the talk, with a brief non-technical overview of recent exoplanet science and my research.
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What’s the matter with British bread? Sustainability consulting for community benefit society Scotland the Bread
As the child of a German mother, I grew up with German food. Not pretzels and Currywurst–which is essentially street food–but liverwurst and salami, jam and Nutella and Pflaumenmuss (plum butter), cheeses, Bratkartoffel (fried potatoes), Milchreis (rice pudding), Hanuta, Milka, and Kinder eggs, and of course, lots of bread. Germans eat bread with toppings for… Read more
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Earth the exoplanet
Compared to exoplanets, we know a lot about the Earth. It’s our home planet and the one that shapes our expectations when we study other worlds. Planetary science evolved out of Earth science. Exoplanet models started out as Earth climate models. Yet research on Earth throughout its history shows that the climate has been very… Read more
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Water cloud, acid cloud, iron cloud
A little while ago my kitchen sink had a serious clog. The emergency plumber worked on it for two hours. After failing to clear it with the manual plumbing snake and the much larger, electric plumbing snake, he finally tossed in the towel and poured a bottle of 80% sulphuric acid (chemical formula H2SO4) down… Read more
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Guest blog: Why gaming with friends is wholesome
Guest blog for Yaldi Games: Why gaming with friends is wholesome!
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How the Heavens Moved in Ancient Babylon and Greece
I work with climate models in my research. That means I tell a computer to perform some calculations for me. The computer calculates a set of equations in physics that describe how the gas making up the atmosphere of a planet flows and the values of its physical properties, like pressure, density, and temperature, at… Read more
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How do we know what’s in an exoplanet’s atmosphere?
A planet’s atmosphere contains different chemical elements. The Earth’s atmosphere, for example, consists of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and just 0.01% other gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone. Earth’s atmosphere also contains varying amounts of water vapour in different regions and at different heights. That catch-all “other” category may be small,… Read more
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Planet Profile: Proxima Centauri b
The closest star to our Sun is called Proxima Centauri. It was discovered over 100 years ago by the Scottish astronomer Robert Innes and is estimated to be only 4.25 lightyears away. Getting a feel for the kinds of distances we’re talking about in astronomy is difficult, so let’s use a mental yardstick to help.… Read more
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